YYARD

YYARD is the musical project of pianist, keyboardist, and producer Yannis Anft with a musical horizon wide enough to fit Coby Sey, Thundercat, and DJ Stingray. Anft draws inspiration from years of experience as a jazz pianist and a lively interest in other musical genres, art forms, and aesthetics including Japanese Zen Buddhism. Born in 1993, Anft started playing the piano at the age of 11. From 2013 to 2019 he studied jazz piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, with teachers such as Hubert Nuss and Jürgen Friedrich. Since then, he has been active as a pianist, keyboardist, and producer. In addition to engagements in numerous side projects based in various genres, he is part of hip hop / neo-soul act SALOMEA and experimental jazz fusion project Delusional Mind. Live concerts and DJ sets have taken him to stages in Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Iceland, Denmark, Morocco, and Slovenia. After visiting Berlin clubs on weekends and getting a taste of the music scene, Anft moved to the capital in October 2021.